SXSW review: Future has his mind on the future  and Kanye West

Tuesday

Mar 18, 2014 at 5:21 PMMar 18, 2014 at 5:22 PM

By Chris TalbottThe Associated Press

Future had one last spot to fill on his upcoming album and he wanted Kanye West to guest. He sent over a few tracks and what happened next was completely unexpected.“He picked this ‘I Won’ track,” the Atlanta producer-rapper said March 15 during a two-day stop at South By Southwest. “He did the verse in one day and sent it back. That’s rare when you get a Kanye verse back in one day, so you know it’s one of them records when he does the verse and sends it back in 24 hours. That’s the icing on the cake with the album.”Future began to debut tracks from “Honest,” out April 22, at the annual music conference and festival on March 14 and said he was excited for the wider world to hear what he feels is a very personal album. “Honest” also includes guest appearances from stars like Pharrell, Drake, Andre 3000 and Wiz Khalifa.West’s appearance on “I Won” is one of the more personal moments, encapsulating how deeply in love each is with the women in their lives. West is engaged to Kim Kardashian and Future will marry Ciara later this year. The song compares their relationships with the feeling of winning a trophy.“When you have songs like that, they empower women,” he said. “I just feel like I want to big up women just in general, from my lady to his lady, to all women, to make sure they get their light on them and just knowing they’re important.”Future has much more going on this year than just the album. He’s got a tour to rehearse for and can’t take all the outside production opportunities he’s being offered. He’s also launching an apparel line. That’s just the business side. In his personal life, he’s preparing for the birth of a child with Ciara and trying to plan their wedding. He didn’t want to give away more details, but couldn’t help it as he talked about everything.“I’m suuuper excited — even though I don’t want to talk about it, I’m super, super, super excited,” he said. “Personally we’re trying to get everything mapped out in the way we want to do it, and so it’s not time to talk about it, but it’s going to happen. And we’re excited about our baby, excited about getting married. She’s actually doing the baby shower. We’re super excited about that, every day shopping for the baby, just trying new things, just me growing up, being a father, learning about myself, learning more about my kids and just being the man I need to be for them.”Asked if he knows the baby’s sex, he initially declined to answer, but couldn’t help himself. The baby is going to be “a superstar,” he said. “He’s kicking around, dancing in her stomach, doing some moves. I don’t know what he’s doing, turning it up.”